Sprouts Famers Market opened in Valencia on Wednesday to hundreds of local shoppers. And consumers weren’t just browsing the merchandise.

Scheduled to open at 7 a.m., Sprouts opened early to accommodate crowds waiting for the doors to be unlocked.

As of 9 a.m., lines of shoppers were backed up through the store with shopping carts full of purchases.

Joe Dubrow, vice president and chief marketer for Sprouts, said the Santa Clarita Valley opening was exceptionally strong.

“There are advanced signs as to how an opening day will go,” said Dubrow. “We had a feeling this was going to be big.

“Some stores will have 100 shoppers sign up for our mailing list prior to a grand opening. We had 1,700 people sign up prior to our grand opening here.”

Standing at the front door to personally greeting each shopper was Doug Sanders, chief operations officer of Sprouts.

Phil Martini, local resident and manager of the Valencia store, said people in the community had been acknowledging him whenever he was out wearing his Sprouts polo shirt.

“I had worked with Albertsons for years and no one ever acknowledged me or the store I worked for before,” he said.

The parking lot was packed solid with vehicles from Creekside Road to Magic Mountain Parkway and a sea of green, reusable Sprouts shopping bags were visible everywhere Wednesday as shoppers trekked to the parking lot with purchases.